


In the Event of a Fire

by ketchup



Category: Steven Universe (Cartoon)
Genre: Ambiguous Relationships, Anxiety, Co-workers, Emotional Constipation, Emotional Hurt, Fire, Teen Angst, Teenagers, Unreliable Narrator
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-08-17
Updated: 2015-08-17
Packaged: 2018-04-15 04:51:23
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,626
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4593507
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ketchup/pseuds/ketchup
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>♫ Don't panic, stay calm. ♫</p>
<p>“Oh, is that all it takes to get you to do your job? Just a broken spine and some magic fire?”</p>
<p>Lars is a kicked puppy. Sadie is wrapped up in her thoughts. Garnet makes an appearance as a temporary security guard with Future Vision. Teenagers, yikes.</p>
            </blockquote>





	In the Event of a Fire

**Author's Note:**

> This is a submission for the August Larsadie Ficlet Challenge over at http://ficletaweekpc.tumblr.com/
> 
> The prompt was: "At the end of Joking Victim Sadie and Lars go off to get Lars cleaned up after the damage from the fire salt is contained. Write where they went and what they talked about."
> 
> Constructive criticism is appreciated. I'm not confident about my weak as wet tissue paper writing, but I just had to try to contribute to this event.
> 
> [echo] free - free - free

It was rare that true silence passed between Sadie and Lars. Aside from blasts from the fire extinguisher and the occasional coughing fit, though, they didn’t speak for most of the short walk back to the Big Donut.

When they worked together, they were always fighting to find ways to make a shift go by. Days were empty and idle, nights were hopeless and futile. The morning rush was always hectic, no matter how tidy Sadie was the previous night, or how frenzied Lars was about getting people through the line that often left the front door open. After the rush, he would watch Sadie chase them around with an empty paper towel tube. She knew better than to ask him for help. If a pest wandered over to him, Lars would take a swing with a rolled up magazine, but otherwise he was no help except as an audience to laugh when she sometimes erupted with vulgarity.

For all of his innovations in the field of slacking, though, Sadie had come to think of him as a good person. When they closed the store together, he always took the trash to the dumpster. She liked to think it was because he cared that darkness and rats in the alley scared her. He was also careful to handle the pallets of baked goods, at least to break them down into smaller stacks so she could reach them without a step ladder.

That walk back to the Big Donut, short though it was, gave her too much time to fret about whether Lars did those things because they were friends, or because he liked to have some pull when he asked for favors.

How many double shifts had she worked so he could have a day off or leave early? How many times had he shown up just before the store opened, when she’d been there since sunrise? Everyone in the city seemed to think of them as Team Big Donut, but Sadie was drowning just thinking of the times she reset the coffee pot while Lars was finger-drumming on the counter.

A livid flush had crept up her neck, but she didn’t dare look back at Lars. His sputtering had quieted. He might have been carried away by a flock of seagulls and dumped in the ocean. Good. The bitterness that had driven her to put the salt on Lars’ donut swept back into her chest. At least that wasn’t as humiliating as crying in front of the arcade, all because she couldn’t figure out who was the bigger idiot in this mess. For now, she could let it be Lars.

As they returned to the store, Sadie patted blindly at the front pocket of her work slacks and realized that she didn’t have her key ring. As she pushed the door open, her stomach dropped like it did when her foot missed a stair.

She’d left the front door unlocked.

They’d been gone fifteen minutes. Someone could have walked away with the entire register drawer. She opened her mouth to take a breath and. No. She couldn’t. The counter looked like a snowy blob of colors. No matter how much she tried to blink away fresh tears and the brightness of the sunshine from outside, she couldn’t stop fixating on how the register had to be gone. The whole thing. Gone.

They were both just associates, but she’d always thought of herself as the Big Donut’s anchor, a day manager in attitude if not title. Meanwhile, here she was, toe-deep in sprinkler water and trying not to cry as she thought about how it would have taken her five stupid seconds to lock the door before chasing after Lars. The register had to have been robbed. She was going to get fired. Lars, too. They were both going to get fired, all because she was petty about Lars being his usual self, and of course he liked Jenny, she’s pretty, and--

“Hey.”

That one word caused Lars to double over with another coughing fit, one so intense that it snapped Sadie back to the situation. She’d been standing there, one hand holding the glass door to the store wide open, while Lars had waited behind her, fidgeting with indecision.

Even though he had been spewing fire only moments ago, he had stopped short of going inside the store where he could get a drink. He’d even picked up the empty fire extinguisher from where Sadie had let it fall when she was stampeded with awful thoughts.

Sadie jolted. “Don’t force yourself to talk, gosh.” Her voice was warbled with a mixture of nervous laughter and unshed tears.

She still felt herself sweating, but once the tension was broken, she could move. After a breath, she saw that Garnet had been standing next to the register the whole time, with one hip leaning against the counter.

With an air of complete tranquility, the Gem cocked one hand into a finger pistol and pointed it at Sadie.

“Howdy.”

“Oh, hi Garnet,” Sadie said as she went to get Lars a cup of water from the soda dispenser. “Are you looking for Steven? We just saw him with Amethyst…”

Lars shuffled his way around the interior perimeter of the store, with his back pressed against the windows to put as much space between himself and Garnet. Both Sadie and Garnet observed his theatrical bumbling until he managed to slump down into one of the dining area’s chairs so awkwardly that he nearly fell over.

Garnet remained unruffled by the awkward situation, and made her way to the door. “Yes. At the arcade. I should go. Steven won’t be able to stop her from feeding French fries to the seagulls.”

“Yikes, that sounds like…a bad idea.” Before Sadie could finish her comment, the door had shut behind the tall Gem. Sadie passed the cup of water to Lars, who chugged it. When it was empty, he stuck his hand out in Sadie’s direction, silently asking for more.

She had already filled another cup, and handed it to him. By the time Lars finished his third cup of water, he seemed sated, and laid his head on the table. Sadie had fetched the mop and bucket, and was busy cleaning up the minor flooding. She’d have to make a phone call to order a replacement fire extinguisher from Big Donut Corporate, process all the water damaged inventory, and then spend even more time with her nose in the Big Donut Big Guide to Big Safety for what to do after the sprinklers had been set off. Odds were that she’d have to stay late to get everything cleaned up.

When she turned around to wheel the bucket to the back room, Sadie dropped the mop.

Lars was gone.

Of course he was.

As Sadie sighed with resignation, though, she heard the store’s back door shut. She poked her head into the narrow hallway that lead to the back room and exit and saw Lars wiping his hands on his jeans. Just like he did after he took the trash out to the dumpster.

“Employees must wash hands before returning to work.”

Lars blew a raspberry and ducked over to the work sink to give his hands a quick rinse. “You’re a broken record.”

Now that she knew Lars hadn’t left, Sadie returned to the retail area and looked around. How wrapped up in her own thoughts had she been that she didn’t realize Lars had tossed out all of the soggy cups and napkins? She rotated on the spot, awed by the little bits of cleaning he’d done, until Lars came out to join her and laughed.

“You really took that broken record gag to heart, Sadie.” He rolled his eyes and grabbed a roll of paper towels.

It took her a few tries, but Sadie finally cleared her throat and managed to ask, “You’re…not going home?”

Lars spared her a one-shouldered shrug as he started cleaning up the counter. “After spending the afternoon breathing fire with a broken spine, I think I can handle a shift at the store.”

“Oh, is that all it takes to get you to do your job? Just a broken spine and some magic fire?” She was rewarded with another of Lars’ forced scoffs. He tossed a wad of soaked paper towels at her. She shrieked a little and hopped to avoid it. The maneuver made her bump into the trash can beside where she'd just been standing.

“Crap, sorry,” Lars said, though not without a snorty little laugh.

Sadie also rolled her eyes and hoped she wasn’t blushing as obviously as it felt like she was. She stooped down to retrieve the mess. “Whatever.”

“No, seriously, I,” Lars’ eyebrows were knotted. He turned back around in a huff and resumed cleaning. “I should’ve just asked if you would cover for me.” Sadie frowned, and from the way Lars jumped a little, it was like he could feel her glare on the back of his head. “N-not that you should. You’re always covering for me. And not for any good reason. You only ask for time off if you’re sick, and like. Really sick. Like when you had the flu a few months back.”

Sadie’s gloom lifted. “You remember that? It was like, two days.”

“Yeah, well. It was two days here without you, so. It was pretty much a nightmare.”

There was a long, distressing pause in which Sadie raced to dissect this revelation, and Lars became flustered. He began cleaning with more gusto, and sporadically grumbled to himself.

“Don’t worry, Lars,” Sadie said as she wheeled the mop bucket away. She smiled to herself. “I’ll always be your player two.”


End file.
